Stars and Bounty
by Blue Scorpio
Summary: "But tonight, her luck seemed to have disappeared all together with the last light of the sunset."
1. The Woman in Pearls

The sunset was beginning to burn a golden-orange, and looking out the window from the bar, the last few rays ignited the emeralds in her eyes and the ruby on her lips. Though, she always wore this specific shade of red lipstick for no obvious affair; this time it had been more than just coincidental, or at least she had hoped so. Men, she knew, were so easily manipulated with a pretty face or big breasts. Throwing a few fascinated looks at them and batting an eye coupled with a few forced laughs at their not so funny jokes was Faye Valentine's preferred method of baiting a guy's ego. She knew exactly when to laugh and just how genuine it had to sound before he had even reached the punch line. Of course, though, she knew the only real joke was that a man's pride was fragile and needed constant validation, and in her validation she would make off with his Woolongs and if luck would permit an article of jewelry even. But tonight, her luck seemed to have disappeared all together with the last light of the sunset.

With a sigh of exasperation she ordered another martini and drank it swiftly but maybe inhaled would be more accurate.

Just as she had decided to leave, a stranger a few stools down glanced over making eye contact with her that they both held for what seemed an absurd amount of time. And though they looked away just as quickly, a smile, Faye hadn't noticed, was making its way across the stranger's face.

The curious looking stranger, a tall woman with a strikingly tall updo moved down the bar toward Faye, knocking back a brown curl that fell over her face and to her back which Faye noticed was completely left bare and visible by the gown she was wearing when she sat.

"Which is your favorite?" the stranger asked, motioning with a finger at the drinks lining the back wall of the bar.

"Why? You looking to buy?" Faye replied without interest, lighting a cigarette.

"And if I am?" A small smile growing on her face again.

For a while neither said anything. Faye continued sucking the smoke out of her cigarette and letting it billow from her lips, and the woman had resigned herself to looking out the window. Faye's cigarette lighting might have just been a smokescreen to conceal any interestedness in her face, as just when she thought she wouldn't notice, Faye let her eyes, almost childlike, wander to the stranger once more.

She too, like Faye, had on red lipstick that complimented her olive skin. Her black gown, Faye saw, was slit almost entirely to the woman's hips revealing supple thighs that tapered into strong legs by the looks of her calves and then to the woman's ankles where a delicate pearl anklet hung precariously to match the long string of pearls around the stranger's fine neck.

"Do you ever think of just getting in a zipcraft and just going out there?" the woman asked, not breaking her view of the window and stars that glittered softly like the pearls adorning her; the subtle silence seemingly pierced with the question.

Startled, Faye quickly glanced away, nervous she had been caught staring and looked forward again at the liquor bottles lining the wall.

"What do you mean just going out there? There's nothing out there for anyone but the cold." Faye said, dismissively.

"I'm sorry, it's nothing. I don't know what I'm saying," the stranger replied, breaking her view of the window for a second and then returning it. "The name is, Stelle, by the way."

Almost getting up to leave, Faye thought better of it and kept sitting. An odd gravitation kept her glued to her stool and in the midst of this woman in pearls. Must have had too much to drink already, she thought. Well, what the hell, free is free.

"Faye's my name. And if you are looking to buy you can start with a Tall Maroon," Faye found herself saying, almost surprised at the openness of her response and added quickly, "I'd really just order it myself but I'm a little short on funds." Faye noticed she was fidgeting nervously with a small sweep of her hair and caught herself before Stelle had seen.

"Excellent." Stelle said with a certain delightfulness in her voice absent just moments ago.

Stelle flagged the bartender and before she knew it Faye had her drink sitting in front of her. Maybe she should have just left. What was she doing? Stelle had also gotten herself a Tall Maroon to try.

"Can't say I've ever had one of these before, but you know what they say. Something about broader horizons." Stelle lifted the sugar rimmed drink to her lips and drank it heartily putting a hand beneath her mouth to catch any of the dark liquid. "Oh. That's good." And she ordered herself another.

Who was this woman Faye had found herself sitting next to. This woman who smelled vaguely of roses? Or was it lilies? Either which it did not matter because now Faye saw that her luck had been replenished along with Stelle's drink. Examining the extravagance and detail of Stelle's gown she wondered if she just stumbled upon an heiress of some sort or perhaps a wealthy business woman come for a relaxer from the office, just look at those pearls. She wondered if they were real.

Faye opened. "Stelle, was it? Sorry, I'm so terrible with names." She sprung a few fake giggles.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, how's your drink?" Stelle replied, securing a loose shock of her brown mane with a pin.

"You know drinks are always better when someone else is buying," Faye said, giggling some more.

"Glad you like it, gotta admit I like this one a bit myself."

"Give me twenty-thousand Woolongs and I'll tell you my other favorite drink," Faye said having finished her glass.

"Give me fourty-thou and I'll jump this counter and make one myself," Stelle blurted.

At this both laughed. Faye was caught off guard by how easily this laugh came and made her feel. Definitely had too much to drink, she thought. It had been too long since last she laughed with someone liked this, nevermind at a bar where she came strictly to play with men at a game only she knew the rules to. A game she always won.

The moment seemed to last hours and a part of Faye, probably concealed in the back pit of her mind wished it could have lasted hours more, but it was time to get to business and star–

"Faye?"

"Mhmm?" Faye replied, nearly choking on a bit of ice she was chewing.

"I want you to look at something for me and tell me what you think."

Stelle met Faye's eyes and motioned down with her own eyes to her lap. Faye followed down with the last of her drink going down her throat. Stelle had already put one hand in the slit of her gown and was pulling it up, slowly revealing her thigh closest to Faye, once more.

Faye could hear the blood rushing through her ears coupled with the sound of velvet rubbing against skin, Stelle's skin. All else had seemed to get quiet; the distant chatter of conversations around grew even more distant. The hologram monitor comprising a large portion of the wall seemed to fade into a muted static.

Faye ground her jaw in apprehension and bit her lip at the peculiarity of what was happening. Was Stelle meaning to flash her her panties? In any case Faye could only watch, she wanted to say something but found herself without breath as her chest had grown tight and rhythmic with the beat of her heart.

Just when she was sure Stelle was about to reveal her panties or perhaps the secrets of the universe from underneath her gown the beautiful stranger's hand stopped retracting.

"Valentine, Faye. Age seventy-seven. I'm placing you under arrest."

In one, swift motion Stelle retracted her gown another 4 inches revealing the muzzle of a gun strapped to her thigh.


	2. Hidden Dangers

"I'm Lieutenant Stelle Ferro, and I have a warrant for your immediate arrest citing crimes on Venus, Mars and Earth. A numerous amount of larcenies have been attributed to your file, and that's just the beginning of the list." Her voice had gone cold, having lost any semblance of joy. Stelle kept her eyes straight ahead, same as Faye.

Faye started. "Oh, you do?" Her voice had taken on an almost amused quality to it.

Faye stretched her arms out in a yawn as though the woman had asked for a charitable donation. She tried to relay a cool, relaxed composure and possibly unnerve the lieutenant if possible. This technique had helped her avoid scuffles before. But….crap. How had she been so careless? Her eyes had been all over Stelle's person, how had she missed any sign of a gun? Probably lost her line of vision behind the curve of Stelle's thighs and rear end. She laughed at her own ineptitude. It was the same kind of nervous laugh Spike and Jet heard when they questioned her about missing Woolongs.

"I'll ask you to not make any sudden movements Miss Valentine. I know you're carrying at least one weapon on you, and I see you moving closer to your clutch so I guess that's where you're keeping it," Stelle said. " I want you to slowly move it across the bar towards me, slowly."

"And if I said no," Faye sighed, with an arrogant flare, "that I could draw my gun before you could unstrap yours?"

"I would urge you to reconsider. If I so much as think you're about to make a move I'll have two bullets straight through the palm of your pretty little hand, and I'm an excellent shot but from this range it wouldn't even be practice." Stelle said and lightly tapped the bulge underneath her gown making a soft metallic clank.

Faye glanced for moment at her hand. She had been edging closer and closer to her clutch and thought for a sound moment that it was pretty. The guys seemed to like it when her nails matched her lips, redder than Mars. Faye moved her hand over the black, glossy clutch hesitantly, her brilliant nails catching the light and that's when her eyes lit up too, an idea.

"Alright, I guess I'm caught then."

"Right then, slowly now."

Stelle kept her eyes on the clutch that Faye had begun moving toward her, taking a moment to look at her face for any signs of deceit. In the bar light, Stelle noticed the sleekness of her movement, the way Faye's light, taught skin seemed to glow almost with the radiance of some distant star much more dulcet and reserved than their own Sun.

Faye again caught the gaze of Stelle, doing her best not to flash a defiant eye. The moment she was waiting for was nearly here and again time seemed to slow. Was it her perception alone of this tall, beautiful woman towering above like some grand statue? This goddess? She was unsure but knew she had no time to muse over this woman. If Stelle was the powerful goddess than Faye was no more than the tribute. And the goddess had come to collect.

Just before she had lost herself entirely in Stelle's golden eyes, Faye with a push upward from her chest, met her lips against Stelle's soft ones. It was a gamble but Faye knew this could earn her a distraction she needed in the best case. But if things turned sour, a belly full of bullets. _Hey Faye you look a little hungry, maybe some bullets will fill you up good. _The morbid thought carved its way through Faye's mind like a worm but nothing happened. A few seconds passed and only the kiss seemed to exist.

Faye, unsuspecting of her own curiosity could feel herself enamored with the connection of lips on lips. In the pit of her midsection she could feel a tickle, a welling of warmth. She could still taste the remnants of Stelle's drink but thought she might get drunk from the kiss alone. It was warm, almost too warm. Faye knew it had to end and soon but the risk of a few more seconds seemed negligible. She would make her getaway and would have bragging rights of this magnificent woman.

In a split second, Faye had undone the buckle of her clutch still kissing Stelle when she felt a heavy hand come down hard on her wrist and pin it down.

Faye opened her eyes to see her looking back, Stelle's eyes burning with such a brilliant ferocity. Was it passion? Was it lust looking back at her through those yellow eyes? Was Stelle on to her? Had she known from the beginning? It didn't matter, it seemed all she could do with her arm held down was fall deeper into the kiss, become snared in the trap she herself had set, but she did not care. Their eyes closed again. This goddess had come for a tribute, and a tribute she would have, Faye decided.

Faye had kissed and been kissed. This simple but intimate act of passion was not unfamiliar to her. Even in high school, the kisses may have been a bit more disjointed and the rhythm not so steady, but they would graduate and mature with her into full displays of her sensuality that it would seem no man could resist her soft touch, or women.

The heat now radiating from there bodies had made a bead of sweat roll down Faye's cheek. She was sure only being tossed into the sun or standing behind her zipcraft's jets could make her feel any hotter. The tribute was being burned.

The radiance of this woman was too much. Faye could feel her heart begin to flutter. If she didn't break from Stelle's hypnotic lips now she would be lost in the kiss and be arrested.

With a deft twist her of other arm, Faye unholstered Stelle's gun and broke away from the woman who had begun to draw further into the kiss.

"Not so fast, Miss Valentine." Stelle said, coolly.

But Faye had already noticed. Staring down at her was the barrel of her own gun held by Stelle.

By now, others in attendance had seen what was happening and in a quick panic all began to stampede for the exits like cowboys to their bounty; chairs fell and hit the table and glasses shattered into a million pieces. Faye had seen it plenty of times and pretty soon it would be quiet again. Just the two of them, as it had always seemed.

"Enough now, put down my gun and surrender. This area is dangerous and well known for other high profile criminals, and we just created a stir. It's time to leave." Stelle said with absolute authority.

"Damn."

Faye, in her internal fury would never have put the gun down; she had no intention of being looted off to some prison where she would no doubt spend quite a few years of her life. Years she would never let herself forget, she still had to pay for. But something odd was happening.

The warmth and heat that had surrounded her was dissipating and being replaced by a cold grip moving up her ankle. She could feel in an instant she had left the furnace of Stelle's company and been transported to Pluto. Faye looked down and saw what was beginning to pervade her veins like ice.

A dart had landed squarely where her foot met her leg and she fell limp to the ground, unconscious.

Just as Stelle had gone to kneel over her, a series of whistles pierced the air and two darts stung her shoulder with their cold venom. She tried shooting bullets into the dart's direction but her vision was already becoming double and she too had fallen, her pearls rattling on the floor.


End file.
